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Ive got to agree with MrSmith I think.
Id far sooner see them riding with no drugs but a bit slower, you would see the teams affected a bit more by retirements during the races and the tactics would play a bigger part. At the mo, if a rider is lagging they will surely just pump in a larger dose of drugs that night to get him through.
Likewise on the weekend I'll be going for the spectacle, but I cant for one second take the riders seriously knowing that they are probably doping.
I'll enjoy it all the same though
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Elvis
I read a book on the history of the tour recently and that kind of opened by eyes. the fact that the TdF is so freaking hardcore has contributed to a culture of doping. Back in the 60's Anquetil's said how do they expect us to race "on mineral water alone". its just people are only now being caught.Drugs were only banned in 66, and the first tests only introduced then. Anquetil and the others refused to take them. In 67 Simpson died on the Ventoux (an event that had been fore-told by Tour doctor Dumas after Mallejac's collapse on the same mountain in the 50s). That's when doping became cheating officially.
They always doped. Read Albert Londres 'Forcats de la route'. In it the Pellisiers list what they are taking....
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jv who do you guys tip to win? i fancy a little flutter at paddy power..........
Vino appears to be doped (Stanga implicated by Jashcke, but still denies), so he's gotta be a good bet.
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Y'know. I'd rather see radios banned than drugs. As it stands, the riders are just following orders from the DS, rather than working the strategy out for themselves.
I don't really think that one should take sport that seriously at all. Especially one that inovolves world-class sportsmen clad in day-glo lycra carrying polystyrene buckets on their heads and riding up mountains. Frankly, that's just silly.
Still going to watch it on the tellybox, mind.
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Dynamite, cocaine, strychnine...
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Buffalo Bill [quote]jv who do you guys tip to win? i fancy a little flutter at paddy power..........
Vino appears to be doped (Stanga implicated by Jashcke, but still denies), so he's gotta be a good bet.[/quote]
What about Petacchi? Although he'll pull out before the mountains as usual I suppose..
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Cadel's going to fall off, like he always does.
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"The Tour's first real drug scandal was in 1924, when the Pélissier brothers gave an extraordinary interview to a journalist in which they admitted using everything from chloroform and cocaine to aspirin and "horse ointment" . "In short," said Francis Pélissier, "we run on dynamite.""
http://www.guardian.co.uk/life/feature/story/0,13026,989709,00.html
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Hovis Brown I don't think the argument is about the difficulty of the sport, but rather that those riders who use drugs are at an unfair advantage to those that don't.
brett If they all do it then the playing field's level anyway.
I think the benefit of taking the drugs is that they recover sooner, can ride faster, can fend off exhaustion better in the latter parts of a stage.
I don't think it matters that all of them are doing it. I love watching the event and the doping doesn't bother me. I like the fact that each day they perform to the same calibre as the day before.
It's a bit like wrestling in my mind. It may be fixed, it may be choreographed, but you still have to be a pretty insane athlete to do it. And the spectacle is still worth watching.
Is there doping? YES
Does it matter? NOOr so it is according to my opinion.
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I wouldn't know about the testosterone, but Floyd Landis was probably stoned when he turned up late for the prologue last year.
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Do you like boxing as well, David?
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velocity boy They still have to ride their bikes though, the drugs aren't doing that.
Except Nicole Cooke, the UK's cycling heroin ;-)
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Yeah, but the drugs will kill and lead to nasty side-effects, like a congenital inability to tell the truth.
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I am no expert, but EPO doping can be lethal ,"hyperviscosity," or thickened blood which can cause a heart attack, what I have read is that more than a few have died in their sleep due to thickened blood. What this means is that if a clean cyclist is faced with the choice of being disadvantaged by the 5 - 15 % advantage that EPO doping affords or he EPO dopes and potentially risks heart attack. I am the last person to get on his high horse about drug abuse BUT the reason they ALL take drugs is because you can't ever win if even a few take them.
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probly a bit late to be asking this, but is there a spot for fourm kids to meet at the tour? i wont be on the interweb before saturday, but will be at the snow on friday (HINT HINT)
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Had a run in with the police this morning (thankfully not the gendarme).
Was riding up the mall, which is closed. It's nice and wide and empty. Decided to take photos of the preparation whilst riding, so whip out my camera and snap away.
Next thing, sirens and a car screaming up to me. I pulled aside thinking it was going to go past, but nope. And what was my crime? Riding no-handed!
That's right. The line from the police was "Get your hands on the bars!". I tried to point out, closed road, no traffic, no-one else around... and that the only person who was going to get hurt would be me. To no avail.
They really have nothing better to do.
Still, some nice photos of big empty roads and TdF stuff set out.
jv
lardy
Buffalo_Bill
mr_tom
hippy
BringMeMyFix
the-smiling-buddha
chris_crash
slamm
rpm-
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About
Tour de France 2007
Posted by
@Velocio
I don't think the argument is about the difficulty of the sport, but rather that those riders who use drugs are at an unfair advantage to those that don't. that applies to all professional sports. no sporting organisation is going to encourage drug use and turn a blind eye to its use. drug use during competion is cheating, plain and simple. if the UCI want to make things a bit more interesting, then perhaps they should lift the ban on technological limitations in track and road races?